WWE SmackDown 4/17/2026: 3 Things We Hated And 3 Things We Loved

Welcome to Wrestling Inc.'s weekly review of "WWE SmackDown," the final episode of WWE programming before WrestleMania 42! Among other things, the 2026 Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal was contested, and we have some thoughts on that here at WINC, along with Randy Orton's show-opening promo, Tiffany Stratton becoming the No. 1 contender for the women's United States Championship, and more!

As always, we can't go over the entire three-hour show in this column, so we won't be getting to the impromptu WWE tag title match, for example. If you want to know what happened in that match, you'll need to turn to our "SmackDown" results page, which is your go-to source for all the details if you missed the show and need complete, objective coverage. If you want to know what the WINC crew thought about the things that stood out to us the most, that's where this column comes in. Here are three things we hated and three things we loved about the 4/17/26 episode of "WWE Smackdown!"

Another week, another reason to complain about Pat McAfee's strange alliance with Randy Orton. While this week certainly (and thankfully) wasn't as egregious as the last few weeks, it wasn't great. We opened the show with McAfee and Orton arriving, and they didn't cross paths with Rhodes, as he arrived later. Honestly, that might have been the best part of both Orton and Rhodes' segments tonight, as the "American Nightmare's" lovefest with CM Punk to end the show also fell flat.

Rhodes' promo aside, the night began with general manager Nick Aldis handing McAfee some kind of agreement, which was never explained. Orton didn't have to sign anything, just McAfee, who apparently read over the document and signed while Orton was in the ring cutting his promo. Now, Aldis isn't a heel GM, so I can't imagine there's anything in there that's going to screw Rhodes over on Saturday, but at this point, with everything that's gone on since this 'Mania feud took a Yinzer turn, who knows.

As his former mystery ally was wrapping up whatever he needed to sign, Orton made his way out to the ring and cut was a pretty okay promo, I just thought it was a little too late at this point. He heeled it up when he said he didn't need McAfee, he wanted him by his side, which is pretty stupid, but it got heat. He went on about thinking he'd be fighting Drew McIntyre as champion, not Rhodes, and how he needed to bring out the best version of himself to fight Rhodes, which the champion technically gave him permission to do right before Orton turned heel.

Orton blamed Rhodes for everything bad that has happened to him in recent years, because he'd been protecting Rhodes and helping him get to the top rather than worry about himself. Which was excellent, it just should have been the entire reason for his heel turn, not because McAfee got in his head. Orton actually said that McAfee had done more for him than Rhodes throughout his career, which is just a weird, blatant lie that stood out like crazy in what was seemingly going to be a solid promo.

While what Orton said was mostly good, it was just a lot of good way too late at this point to save anything. Thankfully, he got to try and fix things a bit without McAfee in the ring with him, which was helpful. But, overall, between saying that McAfee was more helpful than Rhodes throughout Orton's journey, to whatever the heck McAfee signed on the dotted line for, it just left me feeling nervous for what's to come with this story, even after WrestleMania.

Written by Daisy Ruth

A particularly jarring aspect of the feud between Drew McIntyre and Jacob Fatu yielded quite a good pay-off as Fatu was brought into the arena by cops.

McIntyre had been, to the point of nausea, repeating the story of when a now 34-year-old Fatu had been arrested and imprisoned at the age of 18. He called him a convict, and said he always has and always will be, constantly threw microaggressions and other words to convey the fact that, at one point quite a few years ago, Fatu had spent some time in jail.

Nevertheless, Fatu came out in a cop car to put all that talk to bed – hopefully – with a promo on top of the car demonstrating that McIntyre is quite literally the only one still caught up on what happened almost two decades ago.

Obviously, Fatu can talk. Like, exceptionally well, and in a way entirely unique to him with a realness that just exudes and compels one to hear more. When he said there wasn't going to be officials, security, an army or a SWAT team to save McIntyre, it felt like a promise. And it felt like the scene had been set for some perfect catharsis when they do face off in their Unsanctioned match. Unless McIntyre wins of course, which would be quite undermining to the story they went with but all the more on-brand.

And of course, Fatu promised this feud would come to an end this weekend. Which I for one am glad of. Because they'd certainly run the well dry in the months this feud has been building. The honest take is that Fatu standing on a cop car was not just cathartic for all of the wrong reasons, it was really cool for all of the right reasons.

Fatu is a certified bada**, and there is more to the story of his redemption than there is this constant diatribe referencing a mistake he made a long time ago and repented for. There is more to Fatu than there has been with McIntyre for a very long time, ever since the "Scottish Psychopath" indulged in the incessant whining far beyond the feud that made that work. And it just showed in this segment, Fatu has everything that's needed to be the next star, and just at a time when Paul Levesque feels there isn't someone to replace Roman Reigns.

Written by Max Everett

I will absolutely be the first to admit that the segment between Rhea Ripley and Jade Cargill from this edition of "SmackDown" was more on the simple side, but I still think that it was really effective and the perfect go-home for their Women's Championship WrestleMania match.

Until this point, the segments between Ripley and Cargill have been more intense as a means of driving up the tensions between both women in the time that they had to do the build for the match. It was refreshing to see WWE scale things back a bit and having Ripley want to talk alone with Cargill as Michin and B-Fab stood on the outside, allowing for Ripley and Cargill to have the full spotlight placed on them rather than Michin or B-Fab with their involvement. I also think it really showcased the great character work that Ripley does on a weekly basis by having her straight up call out Cargill without being afraid, and was a great opportunity to show off the great heel work she's capable of by stepping up to Ripley with a little hint of insecurity from her character.

In combination with the brawl between Liv Morgan and Stephanie Vaquer on "Raw" this past Monday, WWE has done a fantastic job putting exclamation marks on the storylines for their Women's Championship matches at WrestleMania 42. It felt like they actually gave some real attention and thought to their women's division, which is exactly the kind of thing I like to see before WrestleMania.

Written by Olivia Quinlan

The first thing I disliked about Tiffany Stratton's match on "SmackDown" this week is the fact that it was against Jordynne Grace for a shot at the women's US title, as opposed to a women's US title match with Giulia. Apparently it wasn't enough to leave the women's US Champion off WrestleMania, she now doesn't get to defend her title over WrestleMania weekend at all. Damian Priest and R-Truth got a title match that wasn't even announced ahead of time, but not Giulia. The disrespect is real.

The second thing I disliked was the match itself. No offense to Stratton or Grace, but I wasn't really feeling this one at any point. And I guess a little bit of offense to Stratton, because she really seems to have lost some intangible aspect of her game since her Royal Rumble return. It's not totally her fault — she has nothing going on as a babyface right now; no character, no storylines, nothing — but she also seems to have lost confidence in the ring. I can't really put my finger on what's missing, but something is missing, and Stratton doesn't feel like the can't-miss superstar she used to be.

That said, she's still Tiffany Stratton, so the third thing I disliked about this match was the inevitability of it all. Of course Stratton was going to win, and quite frankly, of course she's going to win the US title. She's by far the biggest star in the women's midcard and at this point it feels like we're just waiting around for her to claim the belt. Maybe a title reign will help her get back whatever she's lacking right now — I hope so, because I've been a fan of her work for some years now. But that's in the future. As far as this match on this episode of "SmackDown" is concerned, I could have done without it.

Written by Miles Schneiderman

In most other circumstances, I would be happy to watch a tag team match pitting Lyra Valkyria and Bayley against Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss since I enjoy watching all four women do their thing in the ring. On this particular edition of "SmackDown, I wasn't as jazzed as I should've been for this match and didn't end up liking very much about it.

For one thing, there wasn't even really a match outside of a brawl that lasted for a few seconds before Nia Jax and Lash Legend caused the match to end in a no contest. I think that the idea of having Jax and Legend be the ones to stand tall makes sense because they are the ones walking into WrestleMania 42 as Women's Tag Team Champions, but there wasn't any reason they could've left both teams laid out after the match rather than the beginning stages of it.

For another thing, having Valkyria and Bayley take on Flair and Bliss wasn't the combination of women taking part in the Women's Tag Team Championship Four-Way that would've been my first choice on this show. Bliss has scored a win against Bayley during last Friday's "SmackDown" while Bayley won against Flair on this past Monday's episode of "Raw". With that in mind, I was pretty tired out of these four women meeting in the ring in some combination with the repetitive nature of it all and would've preferred a little switch up to things instead.

Written by Olivia Quinlan

Alright, that title may be slightly dramatic knowing how the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal has been treated in the past, but I have confidence that since it was Royce Keys to emerge victorious, it may actually mean something this year. In his second match on the blue brand, the former Powerhouse Hobbs outlasted what ended up being 26 other men, by our count, to emerge victorious in the WrestleMania tradition.

In addition to loving the fact Keys won, I thought it was actually a pretty darn solid battle royal. It didn't last too terribly long, but just long enough to be considered a "good" match. It had comedy spots, with Kit Wilson being the first man eliminated, and a planking Johnny Gargano, though I am over that gimmick and was happy when Otis hit the caterpillar to him before throwing him over the top. There were a few standouts, one being Aleister Black, which made sense, but Talla Tonga being a force to be reckoned with rather than being eliminated early by some of the field ganging up on him was a surprise. Hopefully, that gave his character some confidence and it flows into the MFT tension angle, where we're already seeing Solo Sikoa and Tama Tonga have issues. I also didn't realize that "WWE NXT" and AAA would be represented, which was cool. It was fun to see Shiloh Hill in there.

There was no way Keys was losing this after earlier in the night, WWE played another video package about Keys' life, about how his mother died of an overdose in 2021. It was an extremely well-produced video, and I really like how they've been introducing his character. It's very raw and real, which isn't something we often see in a business of larger-than-life characters.

Even if the Andre win doesn't amount to much, at least Keys is gaining momentum now that he's finally on TV after his Royal Rumble debut. I wasn't sold on bringing him in the week before WrestleMania, but with this win, it's certainly not hurting anything. Keys can climb his way up seemingly quite easily after this weekend, and it will be interesting to see where he goes next, though I'm hoping that's not an immediate feud with Sikoa and the MFTs.

Written by Daisy Ruth